Hutchinson Names Transition Team, Private Option Will Wait Until January

Standing in front of a portrait of Republican governor Frank White in the Capitol Rotunda, Gov.-Elect Asa Hutchinson announced his transition team’s steering committee and said he would not decide what to do about the private option until January.

During his first press conference as the state’s newly elected governor, Hutchinson said his steering committee is composed of:

– Mike Carroll of Fort Smith
– Stacy Hurst of Little Rock
– Alec Farmer of Jonesboro
– Philip Taldo of Springdale
– Mayor Arnell Willis of Helena-West Helena
– Steve Lux of Hot Springs Village

Hutchinson, the committee, and his other transition leaders will have plenty of work to do. In addition to creating a budget that includes his promised middle class tax cut, Hutchinson must decide which agency heads to keep and which to replace. Among the holes to fill: Richard Weiss, longtime director of the Department of Finance and Administration, who has announced his retirement.

Hutchinson said he had “an excellent meeting” Nov. 6 with Gov. Mike Beebe. Hutchinson’s newly named chief of staff, Michael Lamoureux, was at the meeting as well.

Hutchinson said he had reached out to legislative leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Keith Ingram, D-West Memphis, and House Minority Leader Eddie Armstrong, D-North Little Rock.

Tuesday’s election put the state’s Medicaid private option in jeopardy. The program that uses federal dollars to purchase private insurance for lower-income Arkansans barely passed in 2013 and barely survived in 2014. A number of vocal opponents were elected in Tuesday’s Republican landslide.

Hutchinson said he would work with leaders in the Legislature and in state government to look at benefits and costs and to determine if the program should be continued and, if so, what changes should be made. He said he would not commit to a decision “at least through the end of January.”

“You can ask me every day,” he said. “It will be the same position as I took during the campaign because (I’m going) to continue to study that, listen to everybody, make my own decisions on it, and then it will be at least that long to develop my approach to it.”

Hutchinson said his priorities would be career education, computer science courses in high school, and his tax cut plan, which he said was his highest priority. He said he would call at least half a dozen industrial and business recruits on his first day of office. Community leaders have already provided him names of prospects.

Hutchinson said he had received a call from President Obama the night of his election.

“He importantly recognized the key role that governors play in directing really national policy, and he wants to have a good partnership with governors,” he said. “I certainly expressed my support for that, willingness to work with him on key issues that impact our state.”